The strangeness of agriculture is sometimes the hardest part of attracting investment money into new farm technology, says a leading farm data analysis provider.
It makes the already excruciating process of raising capital for a new business more painful when asking venture capitalists to invest in agriculture.
“They get it intellectually, but when it comes down to (me asking them), ‘have you been to a farm yet? Have you talked to a farmer?’ (they say), ‘no, we should do that,’ ” Pat Christie, chief executive officer of Conservis Corp., said in a presentation at the Agri Innovation Forum.
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And that’s where things can go wrong, Christie said.
Farming and agriculture seem weird and unsettling to investors who are familiar with regular industrial production, and they sometimes back away from deals at the last minute because they realize they still don’t understand the basics of farming.
“We were at the table with a couple of groups. Almost married. We were dating. We had our vows picked out. And at the last moment they said, ‘we’re not sure we get this ag thing yet,’ ” Christie said, to laughter from the crowd.
Conservis offers cloud-based farm production and management software and data management and has been raising money to expand its services.
It is working with more than 100 large family farms in the United States and has started working with farmers in Australia.
Christie said the farm economy has a great future, especially for innovative companies, but getting enough capital is an ongoing challenge for companies like his that need to educate investors not just about their particular products and services but also about farming itself.
ed.white@producer.com
